Nigeria’s Oil Reserves to Hit 40 Billion Barrels in 2010

Nigeria’s oil reserves to hit 40 billion barrels in 2010

LAGOS, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) — Nigeria’s oil reserves would hit 40 billion barrels in 2010 from the current 35 billion barrels, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC) Funsho Kupolokun said Wednesday.

Addressing the opening of a two-day national economic summit in Akure, the capital of Nigeria’s southern state of Ondo, Kupolokun said “Nigeria has discovered about 7 billion barrels of crude oil in 20 fields in the last decade,” placing Nigeria as a leading country with high probability of deepwater oil discoveries.

In 2004, he said, Nigeria’s crude oil reserves had risen to about 35.25 billion barrels, “largely because of increased tempo of E&P activities by the JV/PSC companies operating in the offshore and deepwater zones.”

According to him, Nigeria’s current crude oil production is about 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) out of a production capacity of about 3.0 million bpd.

He added that over 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day additional capacity would be added by 2006 by the various on-going development projects.

“By 2007, production capacity is expected to reach 4.1 million bpd, up from 2.5 million bpd in 2004,” he said.

In the area of gas development, the NNPC head said the country ranked eighth country with the largest natural gas reserves, pointing out that Nigeria had estimated gas reserves of 187 tons per cubic feet (tcf).

Nigeria is the largest oil country in Africa and the eighth largest oil exporter in the world with a daily crude output of 2.5 million bpd.